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Challenges: Organizing Undocumented Workers

By Lorenzo Kom`boa Ervin, Black/People of Color Organizing Drive,
Atlanta, GA. (Excerpt from "Anarcho-Syndicalists of the World --
Unite!"

Foreign born or "undocumented" workers have long been some of the most
exploited members of the working class. Driven from their homelands in the
search for higher wages and better living standards, they must emigrate or
smuggle themselves into the US. Many times the United States is directly
responsible for the depressed labor and economic conditions due to
imperialist exploitation, as in Mexico, for instance. These workers are
forced to perform the most menial, back-breaking labor at the lowest
wages, jobs that the native-born workers refuse to do, such as migrant
farm labor or in garment sweatshops.

Because of their delicate legal status as "illegal aliens," they are
subjected to bullying and slave labor tactics by bosses, and forced to
live in scandalously inhuman conditions at exorbitant cost. But even with
such dismal conditions and ill treatment, foreign born workers are now
fighting back. Through strikes, demonstrations, boycotts, lawsuits and
other protest actions, these workers are standing up for their rights
against the intimidation of the employers and the State. It is the State,
doing the bidding of the rich capitalists, which has led a racist
repressive campaign against so-called "illegal aliens" and who has jailed
and deported these workers, through its Immigration and Nationalization
Service.

These foreign born workers are combative and militant, and make the
best union members, yet no major labor union will fight for them. In many
respects, even the United Farm Workers Union has now withdrawn much of its
support since it joined the reformist AFL-CIO.

This is not to deny that there are no labor organizations at all
representing undocumented workers. Seventeen percent of them in this
country are now union members. In addition, there are independent unions
and associations like the Texas Farmworkers Union, CASA-General
Brotherhood of Workers, and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, which
represents immigrant workers. But the independent farm worker unions and
associations are not united in a nationwide effort or allied with
organized labor. That must be one of the major tasks of the IWW. We must
actively seek to recruit, represent, and organize undocumented workers and
other immigrants, and affiliate with the independent unions and immigrant
workers associations. The IWW must fight for these workers' rights and
against the racism and xenophobia conjured up by the government and the
bosses. The IWW must unite with foreign born workers and make their
demands part of the demands for the entire working class for better
conditions and humane treatment. Only by fighting for the most oppressed
workers can we dare to call ourselves representative of the working class.
We must demand:

an end to discrimination against foreign born workers. Union wage
levels for all work performed.

improved working and living conditions, including being provided
with union-approved low cost housing.

social and working benefits as native born workers.

the right to organize Labor unions without employer or government
interference.

land to the tillers, and the disbanding of agribusiness
conglomerates. Worker's should seize land if government will not provide
them with land and implements.

creation of an independent Farm Labor Commission by unions to
investigate the conditions of farm laborers and ensure that their living
and working conditions meet federal safety standards and do not violate
Labor laws, or the civil rights of workers.

an end to harassment and deportation by La Migra, the Immigration
and Nationalization Service's police.

free immigration to the US for all who wish to work.

the freedom of all immigrants confined in federal or State prison
for mere entry into the country.